The invention relates in general to weapon system ammunition magazines and in particular to ammunition magazines for automatically loading and reloading weapons.
A problem with some firearms and crew-served weapons is the lack of integrated ammunition handling capabilities such as, for example, automated, or remotely-operated weapon reloading for manned or unmanned vehicle platforms or fixed emplacements such as buildings or towers. This problem has existed since the development of automatic weapons and linked ammunition. The problem has become greater with the recent development of and demand for Remote Weapon Systems (RWS), such as the Common-Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS). For example, CROWS may have a supply of readily available ammunition, but reloading the depleted ammunition required human intervention at the weapon. Such human intervention increases the risk of injury or death and inherently defeats the purpose of fielding RWS and installing them on platforms/sites where human intervention for reloading is plainly not desirable.
There may be no known apparatus that can remotely and automatically load linked ammunition into weapon. One way of solving this problem may be to modify existing ammunition magazines, which are simple boxes for storage and transport. Known ammunition magazines would require extensive modifications to enable their use with automated ammunition handling systems and to facilitate the weapon loading processes. Known magazines would also require the addition of a complicated mechanism to interface the magazine to the weapon. And, modifying known magazines to provide precise and full control of the linked ammunition would compromise the realization of desired performance features, such as first-round select, partial magazine use, high reliability, full and accurate ammunition inventory, etc.
A long-felt and unsolved need exists for ammunition magazines that may be remotely and automatically loaded to and unloaded from a weapon while providing precise control of the ammunition position and ammunition feed for high/variable rate of fire.